Just thought this might be interesting to people, I found this the other day over at MSN:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomebuyingGuide/WhyRentToGetRicher.aspx?page=1

Quote:

"What about the pride of homeownership?"

It's not for me. I define ownership as no longer having to pay for something and being able to do as I please with it. I own my coffee maker. Homeowners must pay taxes each year even when their mortgage payments are done. In certain markets they can't even make changes to the houses they've paid for without seeking the approval of others. Personally, I feel the pride of ownership for shares of businesses, and I'm proud to occupy a nice place while leaving the burden and poor returns and maintenance to someone else."

I have a brain-twin somewhere!

Interestingly though I've been pondering the home buying dilemna and I'm starting to come to a similar conclusion namely that :

Homes are a bad investment.

If you buy even a reasonably priced home ($275,000), and only take two hundred of that out on loans (over 20% down), you'd still pay (assuming 6% fixed interest, not including early payoff or refinance) $230k or so in interest over the life of the loan. That's not including land tax expenses, maintenance costs (est. 4x the total mortgage cost), etc.

Compare this to taking that $75,000 and putting it into an index fund - you'd finish that 30 year period with like $2+ million dollars.